Apparatus for dividing



No. 751,527. PATENTED FEB. 9, 1904.

A. MARE.

APPARATUS FOR DIVIDING, SEVERING, AND SIMILARLY TREATING CLOTH.

APPLIOATION FILED JUNE 5.1903.

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No. 751,527. PATENTED FEB. 9. 1904. A. MARE. APPARATUS FOR DIVIDING, SEVBRING, AND SIMILARLY TREATING CLOTH.

APPLICATION FILED JUNE 5.1903.

R0 MODEL. 2 SHEETS-SHEET 2.

Patented February 9, 1904.

PATENT OFFICE.

ALEXANDER MARE, OF MANCHESTER, ENGLAND.

APPARATUS FOR DIVIDING, SEVERING, AND SIMILARLY TREATlNG CLOTH.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 751,527, dated February 9, 1904.

Application filed June 5, 1903. Serial No, 160,172. (No model.)

To all whom it may concern.-

.Be-it known that LALEXANDER MARR, a subject of the King of Great Britain and Ireland, residing at Manchester, in the county of Lancaster, England, have invented new and useful Improvements in Apparatus for Dividing, severing, and Similarly Treating Cloth, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to apparatus for dividing, severing, shaping, and similarly treating cloth and other fabrics or suitable sub stances hereinafter called cloth; and its object is to enable such operations to be readily performed either alone or in conjunction with any other operationas, for example, calico and like printing.

In carrying these improvements into effect I form the pattern or outline along which the cloth is to be divided or severed or similarly treated in or by means of a metallic or electricity-conducting wire or wires, strip, or strips, or the like, hereinafter called wire, adapted to convey a current of electricity and to be heatedv thereby. To divide, sever, or similarly treat a cloth, the required pattern or design is formed in wire along the line or lines where severence is desired, and the wire when heated by the passage of a current of electricity is brought into contact with or against the cloth, so as to burn it or partially burn it along the desired line or lines, and thus divide it or render it easily divisible.

The wire pattern may be mounted or formed upon or within a convenient block, roller, drum, or the like and be used in a similar manner to a roller or block for printing a design or pattern upon a cloth. The roller or block will of course be constructed of or formed with insulating materials, or other means may be adopted for suitably insulating the wire or wires. The insulating substance should of course be one that is capable of withstanding heat and should also be so disposed that only that part of the wire which is to actually eifect the severing is exposed to the air. Similarly the roller or the like and any parts which are contiguous to the heated Wire should be of heat-resisting material.

The connection of the wires within the electric circuit may be effected in any desired or convenient manner--as, for instance, in the ease of a revolving roller-by brushes and rings.

Different parts of the pattern or design may be connected together by wires or conductors which are not arranged to come into contact with the cloth.

If division is to be effected along intricate lines which cross over or come into contact with each other, small gaps may be left at the points of junction, or that part of a wire may be carried beneath a contiguous part and out of contact with it. Similar gaps between wires and parts of wires or gaps formed by so disposing and arranging a wire that at certain intervals it shall not be in contact with the cloth may be so employed that at certain points small pieces of cloth are left which can afterward be easily divided. The smallconnecting-pieces will be of especial value in feeding cloth continuously under a roller, so that final division by separation of the small undivided pieces could be effected at any desired point.

All the wires on a roller or the like may be in the circuit and be heated at the same time; but a great economy is effected by so conncct ing or coupling the wires that only those which are actually in use for severing or the wires contiguous to such parts actually carry the current for heating them sufiiciently to efiiect severance. This may be effected by disposing the wires in groups, which may be cut into or out of contact or circuit by rubbingcontacts or equivalent devices. The gaps between the wires of adjacent groups may also serve to allow of the unsevered small pieces of cloth being left,.as before described, although the wires may be so close that the fabric is charred and only requires a little extra effort to completely divide it.

The wire may be brought to a heat suflicicnt to completely sever the cloth at the points or lines where it is in contact with it, or it may partially sever it and very much weaken it, so that final division as, for example, by brushing, by stretching, or by acceleration of speed-may be easily efi'ected.

The part, such as aroller against which the cloth may be pressed by the wire for severance, may be covered by asbestos or other substance capable of withstanding heat.

The accompanying drawings illustrate the apparatus which may be used to carry this invention into effect.

Figure 1 shows in elevation a roller fitted with Wires for cutting out squares of cloth, such as will be suitable for handkerchiefs or the like. One or several of such squares may be cut out during one revolution of the roller, according to the disposition and arrangement of the wires, and of course the cloth may be cut to any shape, the shapes and numbers illustrated being only types. In Fig. 1 the drum (0 is formed with two parallel wires or strips Z), extending round the drum and joined together by transverse strips or pieces of wire 0. The construction and arrangement of these wires is more fully shown in Figs. 3 and 4:; but they are of such dimensions that they may be raised to the required heat for effecting the severance of cloth by the passage of an electric current through them. This may easily be done by connecting one of the strips or wires Z) to a rubbing-contact (Z on the drumshaft and similarly connecting the other strip to another rubbing-contact to complete the circuit. A blanket or equivalent roller may be used in connection with the drum, the cloth to be severed passing and being nipped between them.

So as not to completely sever the cloth and to leave small bits by which the cloth may continue to be pulled and fed through the ma chine the wires may be broken or bent down at certain points. as more fully shown in Fig. 2, so as to leave small pieces or spaces where the cloth is not burned, as the severing-wire does not come into contact with the cloth at such points. i

In Figs. 3 and 4 are shown the construction and disposition of the drum and blanket-roller and the disposition of the wires, as well as the arrangement of the latter in groups, which are arranged to be successively inserted into the electric circuit as they approach the printing, impressing, or similar point at which the Wires are pressed into or upon the cloth to sever it.' As will be seen, the wires are divided into comparatively short lengths, the ends of which are separated by gaps which are just suflicient to prevent contiguous ends coming into contact, and which thus leave small pieces of cloth which are not completely severed. 7) 0 indicate the severing-wires and e the Wires by means of which they are connected together across the machine, these latter wires being passed across inside the drum, if required. Each section of wire or each sectional group of wires is connected at its opposite ends, respectively, to rubbing-plates or equivalent devices f on the opposite ends tense? of the drum-shaft, these plates coming, respectively, under brushes g, to which the positive and negative poles of the source of current-supply are connected. Each brush is preferably of sufficient dimensions to cover the two similar plates of contiguous sections, so as to avoid sparking. The brushes are not shown in Fig. 4;. Each group of sections should be of about the same resistance, so as to equalize the load, and this may either be done by evenly dividing up the sections of the severing-wires or, if this cannot be done, by inserting resistances in the desired circuits.

The rubbing or sliding contacts or the like should be so arranged that the wire or wires is or are switched in sufficiently in advance of reaching the cutting-point between the drum (6 and the blanket-roller la in order to enable them to attain the proper cutting temperature by the time that point is reached. They may be switched out immediately they have passed that point; but they will still retain sufiicient heat to materially reduce the amount of current necessary to raise them to their severing temperature when their turn next comes.

The drum may be of iron or other metal or of suitable insulating or other materialsuch as vulcanized fiber, wood treated to resist heat, or the likeand the wires, which in the form shown are strips of tapes, may be secured thereto in any suitable manner as, for example, by being mounted in Portland cement, as at k, or other adhesive and insulating material which possesses the properties requisite in this use. Spaces between ribs or the like of cement may be filled up with india-rubber or similar elastic substance which will maintain a steady pull on the cloth as it is being fed between the drum and the roller.

The blanket or equivalent roller 7L should be covered on its surface with asbestos or other flexible refractory material and may also be covered below the asbestos with a sheathing of india-rubber, this sheathing being either in addition to the india-rubber shown on the drum a or in substitution therefor.

The cloth or a number of cloths is fed between the drum and roller, as shown in Fig. 3, in the manner usual in printing and similar operations and may be unrolled from one beam and rolled onto another, the small unsevered parts when left serving for this purpose, or complete separation may take place as soon as the cloth has passed the impressionpoint between the drum and the roller.

The severing-strips may project above the surface of the cement or the like in which they are mounted to a degree proportioned to the thickness of cloth they are to sever or to the number of cloths or folds of cloths which pass between the drum and the roller and are operated on simultaneously.

The wires may conveniently be formed of German silver.

IIO

Other methods than that shown may be adopted of mounting and securing the severing-wires in place upon the drum or of arranging them in sections or groups so to be cut out of or put in the electric circuit.

In place of the drum shown the wires may be attached to a block or the like and be impressed on the cloth in any suitable manner.

It will of course be understood that the wires may be arranged in any desired pattern or patterns, so as to cut out pieces of cloth of any desired shape, the component parts of garments being so cut, if desired.

The drum bearing the severing-wires has been described and illustrated as working in combination with a blanket-roller or the like; but it or its equivalent may be employed in other ways and in conjunction with other devices by means of which the impression of the electrically-heated severing-wires upon the cloth may be effected. For example, the cloth may be carried past the roller on a traveling belt, or the cloth may be stationary and the drum rotated and traversed in contact with it.

. What I claim as my invention, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

1. Apparatus for dividing, severing, and similarly treating cloth, consisting of a drum or the like, a wire or wires disposed and arranged upon the said drum or the like in a line or lines corresponding to that or those along which severance is to be efiected, means or devices for putting parts of said wire or Wires successfully into or out of an electric circuit so that they may be heated by the passage of the current, and a blanket-roller or equivalent device between which and the said drum or the like the cloth is impressed by the electrically-heated wire, substantially as hereinbefore described.

2. Apparatus for dividing, severing, and similarly treating cloth, consisting of a drum or the like, a wire or wires disposed and arranged upon the said drum or the like in a line or lines corresponding to that or those along which severence is to be effected, means or devices for including the said wire or wires in an electric circuit so that they may be heated upon the passage of a current, and ablanketroller or equivalent device between which and the said drum or the like the cloth is impressed by the electrically-heated Wire or wires, substantially as herein described.

3. In an apparatus for dividing, severing and similarly treating cloth, a drum, block or the like, provided with wire which is heated by the passage of an electric current and which is disposed and arranged in a line or lines corresponding to that or those along which severance is to be effected, substantially as herein described.

In testimony whereof I have signed my name to this specification in the presence of two subscribing witnesses.

ALEXANDER MARE.

Witnesses:

WILLIAM GEO. HEYS, IVM. WARREN. 

